


A Most Agreeable Revenant

by tolkientrash



Category: Carmilla (Web Series), Carmilla - J. Sheridan Le Fanu
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, F/F, F/M, Gen, Jane Austen AU, Pride & Prejudice & Lesbians, Vampires, loosely based on Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice, mmmmmm, my love to Jess for getting me addicted to this fandom, pride & prejudice, this is hilariously fun to write
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-24
Updated: 2015-03-04
Packaged: 2018-03-15 00:13:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3430808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tolkientrash/pseuds/tolkientrash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"She was pale and beautiful in a rare sort of way, as though an otherworldly light shone upon her, which did little to lift the air of melancholy that seemed to hover at the corners of her ever-so-disapproving smirk. Laura was both incensed by her audacity and attracted at once. 'What are you doing in here?!' 'I'm your new roommate, darling," drawled the girl."</p>
<p>Dramatically rendered Jane Austen AU of Carmilla. Promises witty dialogue and the scandal of dancing with one's roommate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prospects

Chapter 1: Prospects

Miss Laura Hollis was a good natured and spirited young lady of respectable status and influence, and had a most doting and protective father whom she adored beyond measure of wealth, having been left motherless in infancy. The pair lived happily in a modest estate in the countryside of Styria, which is in a part of Austria both bleak and beautiful in its solitude. The estate was surrounded by dense forest, the nearest inhabited village was nearly seven miles to the east. We note “inhabited” – there was an abandoned estate three miles to the East, of the ancient family of Karnstein, but no one had lived there for centuries. A peculiar legend surrounded the place, which we shall relate later.

Of the Hollis estate we must say that the inhabitants lived a solitary but not lonely existence, the company consisting of Miss Laura, her father Mr. Hollis, Laura’s young governess Miss Lola Perry and her companion and finishing governess Ms. Susan LaFontaine, and the various hired help that attended the occupants.

It was accepted in the surrounding countryside that Miss Hollis, a young lady of age, was a beautiful creature, and though her modest fortunes did not tempt the more illustrious prospects, her beauty brought suitors to visit the estate. The rather frosty countenance of Mr. Hollis, however, deterred even the most ardent of aspirations on the part of potential partners. Truthfully, Mr. Hollis was so enamored with his only beloved daughter that only the most wonderful of suitors would have been considered worthy of his child’s hand.

However, he was not deaf to Miss Perry’s pleas that Miss Laura was an eligible maid, who could not very well remain with him at the estate without a marriage to a respectable man of inheritance, and consequently at the beginning of our most interesting and adventurous tale, young Miss Laura Hollis was about to embark on an extended stay to visit a distant aunt in Eppenstein, Austria. Auntie had highly recommended Madame Silas’ Finishing School for Young Women as the premier institution for introducing Miss Laura to fine society and suitable female companions of her own age.

The road to Eppenstein was quite long and jostled Laura terribly. She fidgeted with her hands in her lap, playing with the fringe on her mother’s red shawl. She thought fondly and a trifle tearfully of her dear Papa back at home, looking quite forlorn as he saw her carriage off. She was excited to be seeing some of the world, but life at the estate was all she had ever known, and it was frightening to leave it behind. She was reassured by the soft snores of Miss Perry, whose head was slowly drooping onto Ms. LaFontaine’s shoulder. LaFontaine was sitting with her legs crossed and a large tome open in her lap, as was customary.

Laura did not realize she had nodded off until the sudden sound of hooves on cobblestones jolted her awake. They had arrived in Eppenstein at last. She excitedly peered out the carriage window, eager for a glimpse of her new surroundings. The streets bustled with persons going about their business, and to Laura’s eyes, accustomed to a solitary life, they appeared as an anthill teeming with activity. She could not look everywhere fast enough as they passed by. 

The carriage finally slowed to a stop in front of a magnificent stone building with a many-windowed façade. Through the gate, Laura spotted a grassy courtyard, more stone buildings, and a small Gothic chapel on the left. The footman opened the door, and Laura took a deep breath and stepped down onto the stone, followed by her governesses who seemed to be similarly appraising the establishment.

“Welcome, my dear Laura!” The voice startled her. A tall woman with blonde hair and a very expensive-looking blue dress was standing in front of her, gloved hand held out politely in offering. Laura shook the proffered hand. “Auntie Lawrence, how good to see you.”

“My, but you’re a tiny thing!” laughed her aunt. “Hardly grown since I last saw you.” She tsked. “You remember my darling daughter, Danielle?” Laura smiled as a young woman with striking red hair, even taller than her mother, curtseyed and smiled warmly at Laura. “We were but children last time we met, I doubt she remembers, mother.”

“No matter,” boomed Mrs. Lawrence a bit boisterously, “I’m sure you will be close companions. My Danielle is the president of the Ladies’ Summer Society club here at Madame Silas’. I’m sure she will make you most welcome, and introduce you to the proper company.” She seemed to be eyeing LaFontaine’s trouser clad figure as she spoke. “I’m afraid, however, that I must leave you with Danielle, dear Laura, as I have a prior engagement. I will expect you to write your father often, my dear, and you may call on me any time Danielle is about. Take care,” and with that she disappeared into the interior of her ivory carriage and was borne away.

“I apologize, Mother can be rather…” “Forward?” offered Laura. “That’s putting it mildly,” her cousin sighed. “It can be rather nice to be at school and out of her way. But never you mind.” She turned and led the party inside the gates, Laura’s head swiveling to get a better look at the school. It certainly was impressive. The stone glowed in the warmth of the sun, for it was not yet time for supper.

“The other ladies are still at lessons, so I can help you to your rooms if you like.” Danielle took several parcels from an overburdened Perry, who protested weakly from behind a large valise. They entered a door on the opposite end of the courtyard and climbed a stair.

“This is the main residence wing. You’ll be in this room here,” Danielle indicated a door to her right, “And this one next to it for your ladies.” LaFontaine nodded gratefully and began to unload her parcels into Laura’s room. “I’ll leave you all time to settle in.”

“Thank you, Cousin Danielle, I feel as though I were welcome already,” said Laura.

“Please, call me Danny.” She departed with a wink.

When she had helped Perry and LaFontaine unload her things, Laura was left alone for the first time. With a sigh, she laid out on her yellow coverlet. “So. Madame Silas’ Finishing School for Young Women. This place ought to be an adventure,” she spoke aloud to no one in particular.


	2. Companions

It was not so bad to be away from home, reflected Laura, when one was surrounded by such pleasant company. Why, only the first morning at Madame Silas’, she had become acquainted with severable amiable ladies, including the bubbly Miss Elizabeth “Betty” Spielsdorf, a charming woman who hailed from the same part of Styria as Laura. Betty giggled often, and was always smiling so brightly, in such a way that Laura found herself very taken with the young lady, and they became immediate friends. When her presence was requested in town for a dance at the end of the week, Laura graciously accepted.

Friday dawned, and it was all Laura could do to focus on her classes on manners and mathematics, being both nervous and excited about the coming social event. Betty, too, seemed unable to focus on anything but the ball, spilling tea on her gown in fluttering excitement. “Laura, I really cannot fathom how you’ve fared without any balls in your life thus far! We really must present you to best effect tonight.” She insisted that Laura come to her quarters, which were connected to Laura’s by a small corridor, to prepare. A sharp reprimand from the mistress cut their conversation short.

Laura laid her best dresses out on her bed and nervously added a string of her mother’s pearls to the spread. Betty entered the room in a flourish of frills. “Well? What do you think?” She twirled for effect. “You look… lovely!” The neckline was a bit less conservative than Laura liked, but this was the city, after all, and perhaps styles were different here. Betty turned her eyes on Laura’s collection and pursed her lips. “Oh, this won’t do. These dresses are all well for services or class, but this is a ball, Laura, we really must dress you up a bit.” “But---“ “Laura, it’s not as if your dear protective father will be here to see you! Come, let’s see how one of mine might suit you. I have a lovely red one that’s rather small for me.”

Laura had to admit that the red gown did look particularly well on her tiny figure, accentuating curves she didn’t think she had. Betty added her finishing touches, pinning up the last of Laura’s hair into place as they grinned at each other in the mirror. “Nobody will be able to take their eyes off of you, Laura.” She giggled as Laura blushed and tugged at her cuff. “Now come on, it’s nearly 6 already! We’ll be late!” She pulled Laura up by her hands and playfully dragged her to the door, descending the stairs gaily. They loaded into the waiting carriage with barely suppressed glee.

The estate the ball was held at was beautiful indeed, but Laura had eyes only for the gentility. She was amazed at the kaleidoscope of colorful gowns and charmed by the candles the hosts had placed in the trees around the grounds. She had little time to admire, however, because Betty was fairly pulling her into the party. “Come on, Laura, your social life awaits you!” They shed their coats at the door and ascended the marble stairs to the ballroom. A manservant passed them at the top with a tray of champagne, and Betty snagged a pair of glasses, handing one to Laura. “To being the most beautiful, charming, and interesting guests present!” she exclaimed. They toasted each other and drank, giggling.

A young gentleman soon asked Betty to dance, and Laura waved her friend off with a grin. She wanted to admire the splendor for a while, and besides, she thought she had spotted cousin Danny in a group of lithe and graceful women, most of whom she recognized from the school. She exchanged her empty flute for a full one. She had drunk champagne on special occasions with her father before, but this stuff was really much better than the champagne at the Hollis estate.

Danny was in her element, surrounded by Summer Society ladies and clearly the center of a lively discussion on whether or not women ought to be chaperoned by men at a dance, or whether it would not be more prudent to remain close to one’s female friends and encourage sisterly bonding. “I am quite sure I’m capable of looking after myself, anyhow,” she said, “not to be bothered with honoring a single partner when I ought to enjoy the company of many.” She spotted Laura. “My dear Laura, out at a ball! And where are your chaperones tonight?” She smiled broadly.

“Well, they followed me naturally, but I assured them it would be alright if they attended to the piano in the other room, Miss Perry does so love music.” Danny looked very striking in her emerald green dress. Laura smiled at her glass and took another sip to hide her sudden awkwardness.

Suddenly Danny’s arm was around her shoulder. “Do not worry, my dear cousin, I will stand in as your friend and companion.” She gave Laura a conspiratorial wink. “Shall we watch the dancers?”

Watching the dancers with Danny proved to be most entertaining, as she seemed to know nearly everyone present and was not above yielding the most gloriously scandalous details about their lives to Laura. “Over there is Mr. Damien Stravinski, who is reported to have a most unnatural rash on his rear – don’t laugh, it’s true! – and his partner, Miss Lucille Lucas, whose family is French, her uncle was just beheaded in Paris, leaving her with a surprising fortune, and next to her is Madame Strauss, doesn’t she look like she’s smelled something sour?”

Laura herself could not be persuaded to dance, being too shy about her technique. She did help herself to more champagne, and enjoyed Danny’s amusing company. She saw Betty dance with several different gentlemen and perceived that her friend was much in demand.

After a time Laura realized that it was in fact getting quite late, and that she really ought to be getting back to Madame Silas’ with Miss Perry and LaFontaine. Her head seemed to be spinning quite a bit as she scanned the crowd for Betty, seeing only Danny, dancing expressively with a shorter blonde gentleman who looked intimidated.

“Betty will be fine, my dear, she came in her own carriage after all, and will likely soon follow us back to the school,” Perry said a bit stiffly. “Come along, it is time we returned.” Laura allowed herself to be shepherded into the carriage by the flustered Perry and LaFontaine, who looked amused at this mother-hen behavior. She tripped a bit on her skirts stepping up, sending her into such a fit of giggles that she altogether forgot to worry about her friend.

The next morning light broke through the shades and illuminated Laura’s eyelids far too early for her liking. She sat up in bed, rubbing her dully aching temples as she remembered as if through a fog her return to her quarters. She gratefully poured herself a cup of the steaming pot of tea that sat on her bedside, no doubt left there by the ever-caring Miss Perry. The hot liquid did much to restore her senses. She grinned as she flounced over to the connecting corridor to Betty’s room, intent upon extracting a detailed account of the night’s escapades from her friend.

“Oh Bettyyyy!” she crooned. She stopped in the entryway. Betty’s room was exactly as they had left it last night, dresses and baubles hastily stowed, but the bed showed no signs of having been slept in. Laura’s forehead wrinkled in puzzlement. This was most unexpected. A gentlewoman, especially a student, would have no decent reason to be detained from her residence so long. It was already nearly noon.

Laura walked over to the bed, trying to remember where she had last seen Betty. She was abreast of the bed when here bare foot landed in something horribly wet and gelatinous.

“Euurgh!” she exclaimed. There was a pile of colorless sludge at the head of the bed. Where had that come from? She narrowed her eyes as she noticed there was a letter nearly immersed in the goo. With some difficulty, Laura extracted the missive and carried it gingerly into the light from the window to inspect.

“Dear Student:  
Your roommate no longer attends Madame Silas’ Finishing School for Young Women. She has either  
a) Responded to the financial straits of her family and elected to go home,  
b) Decided to attend another institution due to your extreme incompatibility,  
c) Experienced a psychological event that left her unfit for attendance at this institution, or  
d) Cited personal reasons, and that is all that can be said of the matter.  
Exit procedures have commenced and no action on your part is required.”

As she read the note, Laura’s eyes grew larger and larger. This was inconceivable. How could Betty have left school without telling her, and in the wee hours of the morning for that matter? And furthermore, who had placed this absurd formal letter in a pile of goo by her bed? It didn’t make any sense. Laura’s headache returned.

Her curiousity and concern were aroused. Laura flew back to her room and dressed hurriedly, then scurried down the stairs to visit the administrative offices.

Which were closed, it being a Sunday. Laura sighed and rested her head on the wood of the door. She didn’t know what to do. She felt compelled to find out what had happened to Betty out of a sense of responsibility for the missing status of her friend. She needed to enlist help.

She found Miss Perry and LaFontaine taking a late lunch in the garden near the stables. They seemed surprised that Betty had not returned, but offered plausible explanations like being called into town by an acquaintance before Laura had awoken.

Perry comforted her, “We saw her dancing with one of those gentlemen from the militia, they’re a dependable lot by all accounts. I’m sure she’ll turn up, dear.”

Laura returned to her room dejected that evening. She had talked to Danny, who looked happy to see her but could not report on the whereabouts of her friend; she had interviewed fellow students crossing the courtyard; she had even convinced LaFontaine to accompany her into town to look for the militia, who were similarly unable to supply any clues.

She had begun keeping track of her investigations in an old notebook of hers. A habit from her solitary childhood… and it helped her organize her thoughts.

“Facts Thus Far:” she read aloud, “1. Betty has disappeared under most mysterious circumstances. 2. Nobody seems to have noticed her at the party. 3. A bizarre note has been left in her stead.” She set down her pen and sighed. That wasn’t much to go on. Laura would have to investigate deeper if she were to have any hope of recalling her lost companion. She crossed to the armoire and looked at herself in the mirror.

“Laura Hollis, gentlewoman sleuth!” she crowed. Laura grinned. It was an excellent title.


	3. Incursion

Thud. Laura’s forehead met her desk. 

It had been THREE WHOLE DAYS since Betty’s disappearance, and not only had she got no further in her investigations, but the school had shown a shocking lack of concern about the missing girl. She had talked to all of the instructors, questioned all of the ladies’ attendants, she had even demanded to talk to the headmistress Mrs. Morgana, who was conveniently unavailable. Hanging around the instructor’s lounge got her only a sharp reprimand and a suggestion that she be on her way that brooked no argument.

How could nobody have seen Betty or care where she was? Laura was beginning to think that Madame Silas’ Finishing School for Young Women was a rather peculiar place. In her search she had encountered a group of fellow first years who claimed to have seen a cloudy figure of a man in the library, who begged them to show him the way to Dudley Chapel. The chapel had burnt down many years ago and had long since been replaced with the newer Oupir Chapel. Most mysterious.

Laura gazed out of the window at said chapel. She didn’t like to get carried away with stories about ghosts… but being raised the only child on an isolated estate had rather encouraged her youthful imagination. What if Betty’s disappearance had a more sinister, even supernatural cause? The pile of goo near Betty’s bed had begun growing mushrooms with slender stalks and florid yellow caps the next day. Laura had carefully scooped it out the window with a newspaper. Mushrooms! What if the teachers were hiding something? What if—

“Miss Hollis, unless you have discovered a new land outside of your window, I suggest you return to the assigned reading,” her history instructor said dryly. Laura blushed as her classmates tittered behind their books.

Laura left class that day with her notebook open to the investigations page. She walked while she reviewed what she had written, which was a habit of hers. Maybe there was something she had overlooked, and she was determined to find it out. So engrossed was she in reading that she walked into her room and set down her books on the desk before she realized there was somebody in her room already, sitting on the edge of Laura’s bed.

It was a slender girl, clad in a tailored black lace dress. She was pale and beautiful in a rare sort of way, as though an otherworldly light shone upon her, which did little to lift the air of melancholy that seemed to hover at the corners of her ever-so-disapproving smirk. She appraised Laura with a long look. Laura was both incensed by her audacity and curious at once. “What are you doing in here?!” “I'm your new roommate, darling," drawled the girl. She gestured over her shoulder at Betty’s room as though this ought to be obvious. She held a massive book in her lap and seemed completely unruffled by Laura’s arrival. She made no move to rise, merely returned to her book as Laura huffily shut her notebook and stashed it in a drawer. 

“That’s not right. That can’t be right. You see, I already have a roommate, Betty—Elizabeth Spielsdorf. She’s gone missing, you may have heard?”

“I hadn’t,” said the girl.

“Well—well you can’t stay here, I expect Betty will be back immediately. And you’ll just have to move rooms, sorry.” Laura put her hands on her hips. 

“Sorry, sweetheart. This is the room I was assigned.” She waved the wrinkled paper marking her page at Laura and kept reading.

The girl’s indifference rankled Laura. She tried not to pout as she said in her most assertive voice, “In any case, this is my bed, and I’ll excuse you to please read somewhere else, please. What is your name, pray tell?”

As though it was a monumental effort, the girl slowly shut her book, rose from the bed, and strolled past Laura to the connecting room. She was almost exactly Laura’s height; which is to say, not much; but her quizzical brow and dark clothing made her seem larger than Laura. She turned by a fraction as she was nearly out of the room and said only, “Carmilla.”

As soon as she thought Carmilla was safely out of sight, Laura opened her drawer and took out the notebook. Under facts known, she added, “New roommate Carmilla: a sinister individual?”

It was difficult to fall asleep that night. Laura was extremely aware, in a way that she had never been with Betty, of the presence of the girl in the other room.

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the Carmilla Web Series and in no small part by the J Sheridan Le Fanu novella. Also inspired by my love of dramatic Jane Austen literature and my desire to see said literature fused with lesbian vampires. Ehehehehe.
> 
> Find me on tumblr at tolkientrash.tumblr.com!


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